Indústria de arroz em Moçambique: Análise da cadeia de produção, transformação e comercialização de arroz, com base em custos e preços na região Sul de Moçambique

Abstract

In Mozambique, the price of national rice is higher than the price of imported rice, which, from the outset, raises problems in the sale of national production, with strategic implications for the development prospects of this cereal industry. The high cost of national rice reflects the problems that exist in the production, processing and marketing chain. The present work intends to collaborate in the identification of bottlenecks in the production chain and their implications for the final cost of the product and to propose strategic measures to invert the situation, making the national rice competitive. From the analysis carried out, it was found that, of the three phases, the one that has the greatest weight in the problem of the chain is production, that is, the agricultural phase. Its costs are much higher than international ones, which is reflected in the price of paddy rice, the raw material used by husking factories. The main cause of the high cost of agriculture is the low productivity of the land, or better, the low agricultural income of farmers due, fundamentally, to the lack of water, the lack of funds for the purchase of agrochemicals and improved seeds and the non-use of the technological cards recommended by INIA. The paddy rice is sold directly to the husking factories, which in Mozambique, are only operating three, with the remaining eleven being abandoned. The high price of the main raw material makes the transformation industry unfeasible, as it cannot place its product at competitive prices, relative to imports. The market, by itself, has not yet been able to solve the problems in the rice sector, which is why the need for government intervention is felt, similarly to what happened in the 1940s, when, with adequate measures to protect the national industry, transformed the country from an importer to an exporter, fully satisfying domestic demand. The measures to be adopted may be to create barriers to imports, through customs duties, or subsidies to the national industry in order to be competitive, at least in the industry's relaunch phase, in addition to the creation or rehabilitation of infrastructures. agricultural support